2nd February 2026

We have had another brilliant and busy week in Reception. The children continue to impress us with their enthusiasm, developing confidence, and increasing independence across all areas of learning.

Maths

This week, we have been focusing on comparing quantities. The children explored when sets were equal or unequal and used the language “more than,” “fewer than,” and “an equal number.” They also began thinking about how to adjust two sets to make them the same.
To support this learning at home, please see the Mucky Monsters game linked in Working Together.

Phonics

In phonics, we have been exploring vowels and consonants. The children practised identifying vowels within words, clapping and counting syllables, and distinguishing between vowel and consonant sounds. This focus is supporting their segmenting and blending skills and helping them build confidence in reading and spelling.

English

We have been incredibly proud of the children’s writing this week. Following our walk around Prestwood village, the children produced some fantastic sentences describing what they saw and remembered. Their segmenting skills are really developing, and many children were able to write simple sentences independently, using finger spaces and applying their phonics knowledge confidently.

Topic

Our topic learning has continued with our focus on the United Kingdom. The children explored the four countries and enjoyed:

• Painting their flags
• Placing key landmarks onto maps
• Colouring pictures of significant places across the UK

Their knowledge of the countries and their enthusiasm for learning about each landmark has been wonderful to see.

Outdoors

It has been extremely wet this week, but that certainly didn’t stop our Forest Rangers! The children spent part of their session exploring outside before heading indoors to create beautiful butterfly collages. They used a wide range of materials and worked with great care and creativity.

Next Week

Here are some important dates and events for next week:

Monday 9th February

• Forest School for both Badgers and Hedgehogs.
• We will also be opening our classroom doors to parents at morning drop‑off for a sneaky peek at the Reception Area.

Tuesday 10th February

• The children will spend the afternoon in their school houses, taking part in a variety of Internet Safety Day activities.

All Week – Chinese New Year

We will be celebrating Chinese New Year throughout the week. The children will have opportunities to try a selection of traditional snacks such as:

• Prawn crackers
• Fortune cookies
• Vegetable spring rolls
• Rice crackers

Please let us know if you DO NOT want your child to take part in food tasting.

Working Together

To support our maths learning, here is the link to the Mucky Monsters game:
https://ictgames.com/mobilePage/muckyMonsters/index.html

Space WOW Day

On Wednesday 25th February, Reception will be launching the next stage of our Prestwood and Beyond topic with a SPACE DAY!
Children are invited to come to school dressed for the theme, home‑made costumes are very welcome.
We are very excited to blast off into space with them!

19th January 2026

It has been another busy and positive week in Reception. The children continue to impress us with their enthusiasm for learning and how well they are engaging with our routines and activities.

Maths This week, the children have been deepening their understanding of the number 5. They have been exploring how 5 can be made in different ways, for example by splitting it into smaller parts such as 3 and 2 or 4 and 1. Through practical activities and songs, the children have been encouraged to spot how numbers can be broken apart and put back together. We have also been helping them to think about missing numbers and to visualise how many are hidden when they know the total amount.

Phonics This week, we have been learning the following double letter sounds: • nn – Bonny the Bunny • dd – Eddy the Ladder • gg – Peggy the Egg • bb – Robby the Gibbon

The children’s blending skills are really improving, and it is wonderful to see their growing confidence when reading. We are continuing to place a strong focus on correct letter formation during phonics and writing activities.

English In English, the children have been writing about their favourite parts of Forest Rangers. They have shared some fantastic ideas, including playing in the mud kitchen, climbing trees, building dens, and searching for insects. The children are becoming more confident at talking about their experiences and recording their ideas in writing.

Topic This week, we explored our school using Google Earth. Starting from space, we zoomed all the way in to find our school. The children were able to identify our classroom, the Reception outdoor area, the playgrounds, the school hall, and after-school club. They were fascinated by seeing familiar places from a completely new perspective.

Outdoors Forest Rangers continues to be a highlight of the week. The children are developing their confidence, independence, and teamwork skills through outdoor play and exploration.

Next Week • On Wednesday afternoon, we will be going on our walk around the village. Please ensure children are dressed appropriately for the changeable weather we are experiencing. • We are very grateful for the offers of parent volunteers; however, on this occasion, we are fortunate enough to be able to cover the walk with staff.

Working Together • We are having a real drive on handwriting at the moment and have daily handwriting boosters in place. Please encourage correct letter formation at home, remembering that curly caterpillar letters (a, c, d, g, o, q, s) all start at the top and curve to the left. • Many children are still finding it tricky to write their names independently. Please continue to practise this at home, being mindful of correct letter formation. • 2026 has been dubbed the “National Year of Reading”, with the aim of reigniting a love for reading,

tackling declining literacy, and making reading a lifelong habit for children and adults alike. More information can be found at: https://goallin.org.uk/

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Kind regards, The Reception Team

6th January 2026

Welcome back! We hope you all had a happy and restful Christmas break. It has been wonderful to see the children return so confidently, and we are very proud of how well they have settled back into routines. It has been a great first week back for everyone.

Maths

This week in maths, the children have been developing their understanding of number by learning to recognise quantities without counting.

They have been practising:

· Spotting small amounts quickly, such as dots on a dice, without counting each one

· Looking at dice patterns and recognising how many there are straight away

· Beginning to notice smaller groups within bigger numbers (for example, seeing 5 as 2 and 3)

We have also encouraged the children to:

· Look carefully at dot patterns, then close their eyes and describe what they saw

· Use their fingers to show numbers all at once on one hand

· Practise recognising numbers to 5 and matching them to the correct quantity through games

Towards the end of the week, the children played dice games using number tracks, helping them understand how numbers go in order and how the numbers on a dice match the spaces on a track.

Phonics

This week, we have been learning about double letter sounds, including:

· ff – Muffin the Puffin

· ll – Billy the Bull

· ss – Jess the Grasshopper

· zz – Fizz the Buzzard

We have also revisited all of the sounds the children have already learned using Phonics Shed, helping to refresh and strengthen their sound knowledge.

English

In English, the children have been writing their Reception Resolutions—thinking about what they would like to improve or work towards during their time in Reception. Their writing will be displayed on our Wish Tree and shared with parents via the Famly App.

Topic

We have introduced our new topic, “Prestwood and Beyond.” This week, we talked about what this means and explained that over the rest of the term we will:

· Start by exploring our Reception area and school

· Move on to learning about Prestwood village

· Then explore Buckinghamshire, England, the UK, the world, and even space!

The children are already very excited about where this learning journey will take us.

Outdoors

We had a wonderful time enjoying the snow on Tuesday. The children loved making snow angels, throwing snowballs, and attempting to build snowmen. It was a fantastic opportunity for outdoor play, teamwork, and lots of fun.

Next Week

· Reading books will be issued again – please ensure bookbags are in school every day.

Working Together

· The children are making great progress with fastening their coats and jackets. Please continue to encourage this independence at home.

· We have noticed that some children are finding it tricky to cut up their food independently at lunchtime. Any practice at home would be greatly appreciated.

Please remember to check Class Dojo regularly for Reception updates during the week.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

15th December 2025

We have reached the final week of the Autumn term, and what a joyful and memorable end it has been! The children have had a wonderfully festive week and have continued to impress us with their enthusiasm, confidence and resilience as learners. We are incredibly proud of everything they have achieved during their first term in school.

Maths

This week, the children continued to deepen their understanding of number by revisiting the purpose of counting, to find out how many objects there are. Through practical activities, they practised 1:1 correspondence, ensuring that each object counted matched one number name.

The children developed their understanding of cardinality, learning that the final number counted tells us how many there are altogether. They began to apply this concept to more abstract counting, such as claps and jumps.

We also explored verbal counting beyond 20 through songs and rhymes, helping the children become familiar with the patterns in number names. The children linked quantities up to 5 with numerals and investigated conservation of number, discovering that quantities stay the same even when objects are rearranged.

Phonics

The children have absolutely WOWed us in their end-of-term phonics assessments. They confidently demonstrated their knowledge of sounds and tricky words, and their progress has been fantastic. Please do heap them with praise, they have worked incredibly hard and should feel very proud of themselves.

English

This week, the children enjoyed writing and sending Christmas cards to one another during learning time. They also used their phonics skills to sound out and write a list of CVC presents hiding in Father Christmas’ sack. It has been wonderful to see their growing confidence in applying their phonics independently in writing.

Special Days

The children thoroughly enjoyed their end-of-term party! They wore their homemade elf hats with pride, decorated and ate biscuits, joined in enthusiastically with games, and danced the afternoon away at our mini disco, the disco ball was a particular highlight!

Working Together

• The children have been working incredibly hard on fastening zips and coat buttons. We will be awarding Zippy Certificates in the first two weeks back after Christmas to children who can do this independently, so please continue practising at home.
• We have chosen not to collect reading books at the end of term this year. No additional books will be sent home.
• Children have brought home a selection of Christmas crafts, decorations and artwork from the term. Some creations didn’t quite stand the test of time, but every child has something they made, and we hope you enjoy celebrating their creativity together.
• In the new year, we will be restocking our junk modelling area – boxes and tubes are very welcome.
• When recycling Christmas cards, please consider saving the fronts for us, as we use them for collaging.

Thank you once again for your continued support. The children have had a wonderful first term in school, and it has been a pleasure getting to know them. We wish you a restful and happy break and look forward to welcoming you all back in the new year, happy and healthy.

The Reception Team 

1st December 2025

We’ve had another wonderfully busy and festive week in Reception! The children continue to approach every activity with curiosity, confidence and enthusiasm as we move further into our celebrations theme.

Maths

This week in maths, we have been exploring stamplines (sometimes called “stampolines” by the children!). A stampline is a simple number line that helps children see how numbers grow by adding one more each time. We have watched the Numberblocks episode “Stampoline Park”, which shows how each jump adds the next number. This supports their developing understanding of number order and early addition.

Phonics

This has been a revision week in phonics. We have been consolidating all the sounds taught so far. The children have now met every letter of the alphabet, plus the digraph ck.

We have also been reading simple sentences containing 3, 4 and 5 words, focusing on:

· Using an uppercase letter at the start of a sentence

· Leaving finger spaces between each word

· Putting a full stop at the end

Letter formation continues to be a big focus for us. We will be sending home some helpful support sheets to keep these skills fresh over the Christmas holidays.

English

In English, the children have been writing letters and lists for Father Christmas, which they have loved posting into our very special North Pole Post Box. We’ve been developing early writing skills by encouraging children to use their phonics to sound out words independently.

Topic

Our investigation station has been transformed with a range of Christmas-themed objects for the children to explore, compare and discuss. In our small world area, we have introduced a Nativity scene, which has encouraged lots of lovely role play and storytelling. The children also thoroughly enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree in our home corner,this has been a highlight of the week!

Special Days

This week has been full of teamwork and festive fun:

· Decoration Day: The children worked in their house teams to create four different Christmas crafts as they moved around the school.

· Alternative Sports Day: Everyone took part in four energetic team games supported by our PSD coaches.

· Nativity Dress Rehearsal: The children are really pulling out all the stops now! Please continue encouraging them to practise their lines and project their voices, we know how loud they can be!

Next Week

· Monday 8th December – Nativity Performance (1:45pm)

· Tuesday 9th December – Nativity Performance (9:15am)

· Wednesday 10th December – “Walk to Lapland” Please see previous communication for details.

Working Together

· Please continue reading with your child daily and ensure their reading book is returned to school each morning. We have a limited number of books and need them back promptly so they can be reissued to other children.

· As the weather has turned colder, children are wearing (and removing!) more layers. Classrooms stay warm, so jumpers, hats and scarves often get taken off and put down. Please make sure all clothing is clearly named so we can return items quickly and easily.

17th November 2025

We’ve had a busy and exciting week in Reception! The children have thrown themselves into their learning with curiosity, creativity, and lots of enthusiasm as we continue to explore our celebrations theme.

Maths

This week in maths, we’ve been helping the children develop their early comparing skills. Children naturally begin to compare amounts from a very young age, and we’ve been building on this by encouraging them to look closely at two groups of objects and decide which has more, which has fewer, or whether they have the same number.

The children have been matching objects 1:1 (one object to one object) to help them see this clearly. If every object in one group can be matched without any left over, the sets are equal. If some are left unmatched, the children can see which group has more or fewer.

We’ve also been practising the language of “more than,” “fewer than,” and “an equal number” during activities, helping them become confident in describing what they see.

Phonics

This week we met some new phonics characters to help us remember our sounds:

· Jack the Jungle Explorer – j

· Val the Vet – v

· Wes the Weasel – w

· Alex the Fox – x

The children have been practising blending and segmenting with these sounds, working on simple CVC words such as bed, hat, and jug. We continue to use our blending and segmenting strategies: sound it, squash it, say it for reading and say it, stretch it, sound it for writing.

English

In English, the children have been writing simple sentences inspired by photos of themselves learning and playing. We printed pictures of the children enjoying activities around the classroom, and they used these to create their own meaningful sentences. Their confidence in sounding out and writing independently is growing beautifully.

Topic

Our topic this week has been celebrations, with a special focus on birthdays. We talked about why birthdays are important and how people celebrate them. The children have enjoyed:

· Making playdough birthday cakes

· Counting and adding the correct number of candles

· Designing birthday cards

· Writing party invitations

These creative activities have offered great opportunities for counting, early writing, and imaginative play.

Outdoors

We had great excitement this week with Wednesday’s snowfall! The children loved exploring the snow during their outdoor learning time. They’ve also been busy playing in the autumn leaves, collecting them, throwing them in the air, and using them in their imaginative games.

Next Week

Next week, we will continue our celebrations theme by learning about weddings. If you would like your child to bring in a wedding photograph to share with the class, please do, they make wonderful talking points!

Working Together

Nativity preparations are now well underway. By the end of this week, all children will have taken home their character parts and any lines they may have. Please take some time to help your child practise their lines, they are already so excited!

As the weather is getting colder, we are also encouraging the children to become more independent in getting ready for outdoor learning. Please support them at home in practising how to zip up their own coats.

3rd November 2025

We’ve had another wonderful week in Reception – the children have been full of enthusiasm and curiosity as we continue our learning journey through Autumn 2!

Maths

This week, the children have been deepening their understanding of the purpose of counting to find out how many objects there are altogether. They have been practising 1:1 correspondence, counting each object carefully as they move or tag them, and reinforcing their understanding of cardinality – that the last number they say tells us how many there are in total.

A key focus has been exploring 5 as a quantity, linking the number to the five fingers on one hand. The children have been representing numbers to 5 using both their fingers and the Hungarian number pattern (number 5 dice spot pattern), helping them recognise the ‘fiveness’ of 5 and preparing them to explore how numbers are composed and related to one another.

Phonics

In phonics, we have met some new characters to help us remember our sounds:
Haz the Hen – h sound
Bumble the Bee – b sound
Flick the Fly – f sound
Lily the Ladybird – l sound

The children have been practising reading and writing words containing these sounds, using the sound it, squash it, say it method to blend when reading, and say it, stretch it, sound it when segmenting for writing.  By the end of this week, every child will have been issued with a reading book.  Please see inside on the first page of the Reading Record for further details on reading days.

English

In English, we have been creating our own stories using a story sack filled with interesting characters – a lady, a baby, a wolf, a pirate, and a chef! The children have enjoyed inventing their own imaginative tales using familiar story language such as Once upon a time, One day, Unfortunately, Luckily, and Finally.

Topic

As many of the children enjoyed watching firework displays over the weekend, we continued our theme of Bonfire Night, exploring sounds, colours, and the excitement of fireworks through art and play. We also spent time reflecting on Remembrance Day, discussing why it is important and creating thoughtful artwork to show respect.

Outdoors

Our mud kitchen has been transformed into the “Field Maple Café!” The children have loved taking on roles – setting tables, taking orders, and serving delicious mud-made treats to their friends.

Next Week

Next week, we will continue to explore different festivals celebrated around the world. If your family celebrates a particular festival, we would love to hear about it so we can include it in our learning. Please let us know!

Working Together

Song rehearsals for our Nativity performance, “It’s a Baby,” are now in full swing! The children have expressed whether they would like to have lines, and we’ve made sure their choices have been honoured. If your child has a line to say, this will be sent home shortly along with details of their role and costume suggestions. More information will follow soon, it’s already shaping up to be a wonderful performance!

In the event of a school closure, remote learning will be available here.